Gavin Friday

Gavin Friday (born Fionan Martin Hanvey, 8 October 1959, Dublin) is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer and painter.

Career

Gavin grew up in Glasnevin, a neighbourhood located on Dublin's Northside. He was a founding member of the gothic rock group The Virgin Prunes and has recorded several solo albums and soundtracks. He has maintained a close friendship with U2's Bono since both were children, and they collaborated on the soundtrack for the Jim Sheridan film In the Name of the Father. In 2003 they wrote "Time Enough for Tears", the original theme tune for Sheridan's film In America, as sung by Andrea Corr.

In 2005 Gavin Friday played Billy Hatchet in the Neil Jordan film Breakfast on Pluto. On the soundtrack he sings "Wig Wam Bam" and "Sand", a duet with Cillian Murphy.

His main collaborator since beginning his solo work in 1985 has been multi-instrumentalist, Maurice Seezer.

In September 2006 a 2-CD collection of sea shanties called Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys, produced by Hal Willner, was released on the ANTI- label. Friday contributes to two tracks including the lewd "Baltimore Whores" and "Bully in the Alley" with ex-Virgin Prunes bandmates Guggi and Dave-id. The reunion of Friday, Guggi and Dave-id was the first time they had recorded together since the Virgin Prunes broke up in 1985.

Friday worked again with Hal Willner in June 2007, appearing in the concert "Forest of No Return - the Vintage Disney Songbook" as part of the Meltdown Festival presented at London's newly reopened Royal Festival Hall. Sharing a stage with artists such as Grace Jones, Nick Cave, Pete Doherty and curator Jarvis Cocker, Friday performed the classic Disney tracks "The Siamese Cat Song" and "Castle In Spain".

Taking time out from work on his fourth solo album with Herb Macken, Friday teamed up with English composer, Gavin Bryars, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Opera North for a new interpretation of Shakespeare's Sonnets touring as part of the 2007 Complete Works Festival. Opening in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Friday presented his take on Sonnet 40 ('Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all') and narrated Bryars' 40-minute piece 'Nothing Like The Sun'.

Friday and Macken composed the music for the Patrick McCabe play, The Revenant. The play's main theme is entitled 'Dreamland'. The Revenant is set to open for the first time as part of the 2007 Galway Arts Festival.

Discography

Albums

• Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves, 1989
• Adam 'n' Eve, 1992
• Shag Tobacco, 1995
• Peter and the Wolf, 2002

Singles

• "You Can't Always Get What You Want", 1987
• "Man of Misfortune", 1990
• "I Want to Live", 1992
• "King of Trash", 1992
• "Falling off the Edge of the World", 1993
• "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart", 1994
• "In the Name of the Father", 1994
• "Angel", 1995 (Soundtrack from the film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet)
• "You, Me and World War III", 1996
• "The Last Song I Will Ever Sing", 1996 (Basquiat film soundtrack)

Soundtracks

• 1990 Bad Influence
• 1993 Short Cuts
• 1993 In the Name of the Father
• 1996 William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
• 1996 Mission: Impossible
• 2001 Moulin Rouge!
• 2005 Breakfast on Pluto

Scores

• Angel Baby, 1996
• The Boxer, 1997
• In America, 2003
• Get Rich or Die Tryin', 2005

Collaborations

In 1983 Friday appeared on the title track of Dave Ball's In Strict Tempo.

In 1984, Friday collaborated with cult English post-punk group The Fall, on three tracks: "Copped It" and "Stephen Song" appeared on the album The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall, and "Clear Off!" was a track on the "Call For Escape Route" EP. On all three tracks, Friday and Fall singer Mark E. Smith alternated vocals, occasionally backing each other up.

In the same year Friday provided vocals for the track "The Tenderness of Wolves" on the album Scatology by Coil.

Twelve years later, Friday collaborated with The Heads (former members of the Talking Heads without David Byrne) which consisted of Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth on a song called "Blue Blue Moon." This was included as the last of 12 tracks on The Heads' 1996 album No Talking Just Head. The song is credited to Gavin Friday, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, T. "Blast" Murray and Tina Weymouth. The remaining eleven tracks included collaborations with Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blonde), Michael Hutchence (INXS), Debbie Harry (Blondie), Andy Partridge (XTC), Shaun Ryder (Happy Mondays/Black Grape) and others.

External links

• Official Site
• Official Virgin Prunes Site
• Official MySpace profile
• Last.fm Gavin Friday group